French ex-minister to prepare case on behalf of NATO victims, would defend Gaddafi

Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas condemned the NATO attacks on Libya saying it a brutal aggression against a sovereign country. Dumas, who visited Libya as lawyer to prepare a legal case on behalf of victims of NATO bombing, said he was prepared to defend leader Muammar Gaddafi if he is sent to The Hague, Reuters reported.

Dumas said he had seen many civilian victims of NATO bombing in a hospital and had been told by a doctor there that there were as many as 20,000 more. However, according to NATO, it has struck only military targets.

At the moment we have been retained, we have a mandate on behalf of the victims of the military bombardment of NATO, who carried out their military action against civilians with the artificial -- very artificial -- cover of the United Nations, Dumas said in a news conference in a Tripoli luxury hotel on Sunday.

French defence lawyer Jacques Verges, who accompanied Dumas, said his goal was unmask those assassins responsible for NATO air strikes.

Although Dumas didn't describe anything about the nature of the case he intended to launch on behalf of the wounded victims, he did tell Reuters that he would make a more detailed announcement after returning to France and studying the case in more depth.

Under a United Nations resolution permitting force, NATO is leading an air campaign against Libya to stop Gaddafi's forces from killing civilians.

Both Dumas and Verges has offered their services as volunteers to represent the civilian victims of NATO bombing, said Libyan officials. Dumas refused to say whether they planned to accept payment from Gaddafi's government for their services, Reuters reported.

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